That’s the message delivered by the troika at the helm of the 2014 High Performance Rodeo, who announced the lineup Friday at the Epcor Centre.

Just don’t look for a theme connecting the wildly diverse, eclectic and entertaining Rodeo lineup assembled that more or less transforms Calgary into the theatre capital of the world every January.

Among the highlights, the 2014 Rodeo includes a world première from Bigger Than Jesus co-creator Rick Miller, an improvised show by Toronto’s Ravi Jain, a theatrical history of Calgary’s queer scene, burlesque dancers, Kid in the Hall Bruce McCullough, the United Kingdom and German artist collective Gob Squad, a musical inspired by Craigslist, a one-man comic mystery, and much, much more.

Did we mention the absurdist exploration of celebrity culture (by One Yellow Rabbit’s Blake Brooker) performed entirely in German?

“When I think about how we choose the different shows,” says Green, “and how we present them, I often am reminded of how one puts together a banquet.

“It’s not as if they’re necessarily connected, or related to each other, but they complement each other.”

Among the shows in the 2014 High Performance Rodeo:

Bruce McCullough’s solo show, Young Drunk Punk, which chronicles his life from his early days as an angry, funny young man growing up in Calgary, to his current life raising his family in the Hollywood Hills. “He’s a Calgary hometown boy” says Rodeo executive director Erin O’Connor. “Bruce has been a friend of the Rabbits forever, and in fact Blake Brooker is directing (McCullough’s show), so we’re bringing the home team up to bat.

Ravi Jain’s A Brimful of Asha, an improvised comedy he performs with his mother which tells the story of how one Indo-Canadian man deals with his mother trying to find him a wife. “That’s a very good example of where Canadian theatre is going,” says Green. “It’s a story about Indian culture in this country, but ... it is quintessentially Canadian.”

The world première of Boom, by Rick Miller, better-known as the creator of MacHomer and co-creator (with Daniel Brooks) of Bigger Than Jesus. Boom explores 25 years of politics, activism and music of the Baby Boomers. “He’s a star,” says Rodeo producer Anne Connors. “We don’t have a star system in Canada, but Rick Miller is certainly one of mine.”

Waawaate Fobister’s Agokwe, a solo show that explores an unrequited love affair between Mike, a hockey player, and Jake a dancer who see each other at the Kenora Shopper’s Mall.

Gob Squad’s Kitchen, which won a 2012 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience, and Gob Squad’s Super Night Shot, where a group of artists go out into the streets of Calgary, shoot video, and present it one hour later in a theatre.

Gob Squad, which have already been featured at the PUSH Festival in Edmonton and Luminato in Toronto, are a perfect example of what Green describes as the High Performance Rodeo’s ultimate objective.

“What we’re going for is something wild for everyone,” he says. “Everybody has their taste for wild — whatever that means — and this is the place they’re going to find it.”

The festival will also feature Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata, a unique musical created by CBC Radio’s Bill Richardson and singer-songwriter Veda Hille, and Antoine Feval, a solo mystery comic thriller from Chris Gibbs, one of the top performers at the Calgary Fringe Festival in recent years and 6.0: How Heap and Pebble Took on the World and Won, a post-apocalyptic comedy about a pair of Slovakian ice dancers, at Lunchbox.

There will also be a large local component, featuring burlesque dancers the Garter Girls, Third Street Theatre’s History of Queer Calgary cabaret, Of Fighting Age from Verb, The 10 Minute Play Festival, weekday lunch concerts from Pro Musica and W & M Physical Theatre, which will present Triangular Theories of Love in conjunction with Kris Demeanor.

Brooker describes the new Rabbits show, Munich Now, as “a comedy about media absurdism” that “happens to take place in a Munich television station, and happens to be in German.

“But,” adds Brooker, “it’s German written for an English-speaking audience, with super titles.

“It is an experiment,” he says. “We do performance theatre — and I like to do things that are difficult.”

There’s no real formula, says O’Connor, but the result is Canada’s longest-running (this is the 28th year) international performance festival, one that has become the standard to which other performance festivals aspire.

“Apart from artistic excellence and integrity and cost effectiveness,” she adds, “we do try to anchor some shows in that we just know are going to blow everybody away and then ... find the little jewels in between ... and listen to Calgarians, and bring them what they want.”

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Kid in the Hall, Garter Girls and German subtitles?
Lineup for 2014 High Performance Rodeo sure to blow Calgarians away